


Crushed

by Mix Stitch (Synph)



Category: Marvel
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, M/M, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-19
Updated: 2012-10-19
Packaged: 2017-11-16 15:15:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/540846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Synph/pseuds/Mix%20Stitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter is a walking high school cliché: nerdy, skinny, not popular, and to top it off, he has been nursing a crush on his art teacher since day one of his first year in high school. But who’d blame him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Crush

Steve Rogers is a work of art, Peter thinks to himself with a sigh as he sets up his easel and notepad for their day’s class session.

His art teacher is tall and blonde and looks like he should be a pro football player or a model. Instead, he makes a living teaching spoiled rich kids (and the few kids on scholarship) how to paint something beautiful.  He teaches them how to make art easy and fun.

Peter notices that Steve even smiles as he teaches. Not like some of the teachers at the school that look at their students as though they’d wish to be somewhere else in a heartbeat. Steve Rogers genuinely  _likes_  his job and the people that he can teach to paint or sketch.

If there’s one thing that Peter doesn’t mind at all, it’s having a teacher that actually wants to make sure his class actually  _gets_  somewhere. He props his paints up on the chair that he usually keeps them on and reaches for a piece of graphite so that he can do the preliminary sketch for the project that is going to take him all of the semester to complete.

At first, as Peter sketches and erases and tries to figure out what he’s doing, he worries himself into a rut. What if Steve doesn’t like what he’s doing? What if Peter’s crush is too obvious? What if Steve _really_  doesn’t like Peter’s picture?

That’s really what Peter is worried about. Not the school bullies latching on to one more thing that they can use to torment him. Not Aunt May and Uncle Ben being called in to talk to his teachers about his interest in certain subjects.

Peter is really scared —to the point where he keeps having trouble focusing as he sketches out a rough draft of a super hero with a familiar face— that Steve will see Peter’s project for what it is and turn Peter down or embarrass him. Peter isn’t completely ignorant. He knows better than most people why a relationship between him and Steve wouldn’t work out.

Steve is too old for him.

Too mature.

Too serious.

Too  _straight_.

Peter scowls at the sheet of paper in his drawing pad and scratches out a large star in the centerpiece of the hero’s chest, calling on his vast memory and years’ worth of superhero comic books that belonged to his uncle when he was a teenager. Slowly, the image of Captain America starts to take shape on Peter’s drawing pad. Only, instead of having the fictional character’s sharp features and fierce stare, Peter sketches his teacher’s face and body as best as he can.

He works in silence when everyone else in the class is busy chatting about how to get out of doing the work, putting as much of his heart into his sketch as he can until he can almost feel Steve’s presence in the picture. And then a heavy hand falls on Peter’s shoulder and nearly gives him a heart attack.

“I see you’re doing a project on Captain America,” Steve says with a smile on his face that makes him seem even more approachable than usual. “It looks good so far. But the face…”

 Steve trails off and Peter stares down at his canvas with wide eyes. He’s noticed. “I can change the face if you want?”

“No, don’t,” Steve says, still gripping Peter’s shoulder with one hand. The older man looks happy in some way and worried in others. “I like it. I’ve always wanted to be a superhero.”


	2. It's called a crush for a reason

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s not a good day to be Peter Parker. But when is?

The first day of the second week of the semester sees Peter ditching lunch in the cafeteria.

He tells Harry and MJ that there’s something he has to do in the art room and then scrambles off as fast as he can, trying to ignore the knowing look on MJ’s face as she elbows Harry in the side and keeps him from asking any unanswerable questions. One day, Peter is going to have to tell his two best friends what he’s started to figure out about his sexuality, but right now, the only thing that matters is getting to the room that the seniors use for their art projects and hoping that Steve —Mister Rogers— is taking his lunch there instead of in the teacher’s lounge.

Peter runs as though there’s someone chasing him. He makes a brief pit stop at his locker to grab his pencils and his packed lunch and shove them into his book bag, but after that, there’s no stopping even when his homeroom teacher sees him and threatens to give him a detention.

If anything, the threat of a detention only makes Peter run faster as he passes his favorite teacher with a shouted out, “I’m sorry, Miss Munroe!”. Why? Because Peter knows from some of the less well-behaved students in his year (namely one Wade Wilson) that Steve does the detention run three times a week. He actually  _volunteers_  to sit in a room with a bunch of teenaged delinquents and keep them somewhat entertained.

Peter puts on an extra burst of speed and then he’s there in front of the art room. He pants and tries to catch his breath, bending over and sucking in air as fast as he can as his head spins and his lungs burn. “This was  _so_  not a good idea,” he mutters to himself as he feels sweat prickle on the back of his neck.

“What wasn’t a good idea, Peter?”

Peter doesn’t scream when Steve’s voice comes from right next to his ear.

He  _does_  flinches and does his best to ignore his weird urge to climb up the door to the art room as his heart starts thumping a mile a minute in his chest. He breathes until he’s almost gasping for it and then turns around to face Steve once he doesn’t feel as though he’s about to fall over.

Peter isn’t  _tiny_ , but he certainly feels that way as he stands nose to neck with Steve in the empty hallway in front of the art room. When Peter inhales, he can smell paint and charcoal and underneath it, something that might be cologne. But he  _hopes_  that this is what Steve smells like all of the time. (It’d certainly add a bit of realism to his spank fantasies at any rate.)

Steve clears his throat and Peter blushes when he realizes that he’s been standing and staring at his art teacher’s strong neck as though he’d like to take a bite out of it. “Don’t you have lunch period now, Peter?” Steve asks, blond eyebrows drawing together as he watches Peter fidget in front of him. “You’re on the wrong end of the school for that.”

Peter blushes even harder and shakes his own head. He holds up his book bag and tries to beam up at his art teacher in a way that doesn’t suggest that he’d like to kiss the older man repeatedly. “I came to work on my project,” he says as confidently as he can with his heart thudding against his sternum. “I brought enough food for us to share. If you want.”

If anything, Steve looks even  _more_  uncomfortable.

“Ah, yes,” Steve says without looking directly at Peter. “Your project… We need to talk about it.”

Peter feels as though his heart has dropped down into his shoes. “Wh-what? You said it was okay,” Peter says in a hissing tone as he curls his fingers into the straps of his bag. “You said you didn’t mind.”

“I don’t mind at all,” Steve is quick to assure him. “But it’s not appropriate and some of your classmates have… complained.”

Peter thinks of the bullies that he deals with on a regular basis and frowns. “Complained about what,” he says heatedly, “It’s a decent picture and no one’s naked. At least I’m not drawing an Elder God eating people like Wade is.” He crosses his arms over his chest, feeling defiant for one wild moment. “Are you sure that other people complained or is this your way of telling me you’re uncomfortable with me using you as your model?”

Steve flinches and runs one big hand through his short blonde hair. Peter thinks that he’s hit the mark, but then Steve opens his mouth to speak and Peter realizes that it’s so much worse than that.

“I don’t want you being bullied because you have a crush on me, Peter,” he says in a low voice that draws Peter’s attention to the way the other man’s mouth looks soft enough to kiss. “And there  _have_ been complaints, but I’m hoping to head them off before they go to the principal.” He reaches out and clasps Peter’s shoulder with one huge hand. “You’re a good kid, peter—”

Kid.

Kid.

 _Kid_.

Peter doesn’t need to hear any more from Steve. He jerks away from his teacher and then takes off at a fast trot in the opposite direction from where he came, heading for the staircase that leads to the roof. Over his shoulder he calls out, “Don’t worry; I’ll change my damn project if it’s bothering everyone so much.”


End file.
